UN reports 'shocking' 27% rise in coca cultivation in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

UN reports 'shocking' 27% rise in coca cultivation in Colombia
Posted 36m ago


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian peasants devoted 27% more land to growing coca last year, the United Nations reported Wednesday, calling the increase "a surprise and a shock" given intense efforts to eradicate cocaine's raw ingredient.

Estimated cocaine production, however, increased only slightly in Colombia and other Andean nations — to about 994 metric tons in 2007 from 984 metric tons the year before, according to the U.N. — as cultivation shifted to smaller, less-productive plots in more remote locations.

The net increase in coca farmland came despite "record" U.S.-backed eradication efforts that disrupted the growing cycle, said Gen. Oscar Naranjo, the chief of Colombia's police.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-18-cocacolombia_N.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Washington Post: Colombian Cocaine Increases Despite Expansive U.S. Reduction Effort

Colombian Cocaine Increases Despite Expansive U.S. Reduction Effort
Washington Post
June 19, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia — - The amount of land devoted to production of coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, has grown at a dramatic pace in Colombia despite a huge American-funded counter-drug program of aerial fumigation and aggressive interdiction, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.

In a 132-page report based on satellite imagery and on-the-ground surveys, the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime said Colombian farmers planted 245,000 acres of coca last year, 27 percent more than in 2006. Coca cultivation in the world's three top producers, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, increased 16 percent, to 448,743 acres, a swath of land slightly smaller than Delaware.

"The increase in coca cultivation in Colombia is a surprise and shock," Antonio Maria Costa, director of the Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a statement. "A surprise because it comes at a time when the Colombian government is trying so hard to eradicate coca; a shock because of the magnitude of cultivation."

The findings follow almost eight years of heavy aerial fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, an American-designed strategy that has cost more than $5 billion. That program includes military assistance that has helped Colombia's army weaken the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a peasant-based rebel group that has funded its war against the state in part through the cocaine trade.

More:
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-colombia0619.artjun19,0,4328008.story

[Texano78704]

2. Plan Colombia

What is it now? Over $3 billion I am sure.

It's working great!

/sarcasm

[Judi Lynn]

3. Colombia denies being top coca crops grower

Colombia denies being top coca crops grower

www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-20 09:59:23

BOGOTA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Colombia dismissed a United Nations (UN) report Thursday that has placed Colombia as the world's largest coca crops grower, followed by Bolivia and Peru.

Oscar Naranjo, director of the Colombian Police, said the country eradicated 220,000 hectares of coca crops in 2007, while the UN only reported 78,000.

"There is great surprise and a series of concerns regarding the measurement system (of the UN)," Naranjo told the local press.

According to the report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca crops grew by 28 percent in 2007 despite eradication campaign.

Naranjo added that the measurement system of the UN is based on information from a French satellite that stopped detecting the scale of illegal crops years ago.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/20/content_8405974.htm